So, just a moment ago, I said “Thank you” to a person who thanked me for my post. This made me thinking: “Should I thank that person for just being nice to me”. Of course it seems awfully obvious, why not? What harm could it possibly do?
Nothing at first sight, but if you think about it, this could lead to small “thank loops” where people get one or more thanks than they “deserve”. This could (if I have unerstood the purpose of the system right) lead to the system becoming inaccurate on some users’ part.
That in turn got me thinking what actually is the real purpose of thanks? I have always thought that it is to show how helpful or intelligent the user is, further possibly developing into a somekind of trust system where other users can see who to ask help from.
But in the end, it’s up to you who you thank. It could have different meanings for users, thereby with no single task. In the end, it’s up to us, the community what it is used for. Thereby I ask how you use/think how the thank system should be used?
> You “thank” a comment that you like, agree with, or want to thank. Simple as that.
Is it? The thank feature has a potential of being something more than just a nice, small, and useless feature. It only depends on how we utilize it.
So excuse me for thinking this subject a bit more deeply than you would normally think. After all, it’s a noticeable part of these forums.
> > You “thank” a comment that you like, agree with, or want to thank. Simple as that.
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> This
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> Dunno OP, i believe you overthinking this. It’s harmless feature really…
Judging by the first two responses to this thread, it seems like I am overthinking it. But the system has a potential of being a magnificent system that can be used to distuinguish helpful people from your regular forum goers.
I am just trying to bring up an alternate view on that feature. Everything doesn’t need to be so simple. In fact, I would hate for the thank feature to turn into something like the thumbs up feature of Youtube where the post with most thanks is the funniest post, not the most constructive or helpful.
> > You “thank” a comment that you like, agree with, or want to thank. Simple as that.
>
> Is it? <mark>The thank feature has a potential of being something more than just a nice, small, and useless feature. It only depends on how we utilize it.</mark>
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> So excuse me for thinking this subject a bit more deeply than you would normally think. After all, it’s a noticeable part of these forums.
Are you trying to use it to flirt with other forum members?
It’s just the Facebook equivalent of the “Like” button. They like your post, they click “Thank,” you like someone else’s post, you click “Thank.” Simple as that.
Maybe they should change it to “Liked” or “Favorited” posts instead…
> > You “thank” a comment that you like, agree with, or want to thank. Simple as that.
>
> Is it? The thank feature has a potential of being something more than just a nice, small, and useless feature. It only depends on how we utilize it.
>
> So excuse me for thinking this subject a bit more deeply than you would normally think. After all, it’s a noticeable part of these forums.
You’re overanalyzing this completely. It’s not some deep philosophical feature that has a larger, impacting meaning. It’s the equivalent to a “like” button. The people with a large amount of thanks doesn’t mean anything, they are probably helpful, but also post a large amount.
Again, you “thank” a comment you like, agree with, or want to thank. It’s not a hard concept to grasp.
the Gammas had a “circle thanking” thread to see how it worked and, outside of that thread, it wasn’t really much of a problem. i don’t thank everyone that thanks me or that i agree with, i thank the people whose posts i find helpful or insightful.
since thanks are relatively public, anyone can see who you’ve thanked or why you’ve been thanked, it tends to speak for itself. if you’re running around thanking everything that quotes you or thanking the people that just purely agree with you, then people will see that if they care to look.
There is no benefit to getting thanks that I am aware of so I am not sure it matters one way or the other. I think the feature is nice, I guess. I have tried to to be helpful, if I was able to be, before its implementation and have continued in the same vein after it was introduced. So I imagine it hasn’t changed how other people interact on the forum either. I do try to treat it as a “Thank” instead of a “Like” button but there isn’t any rule saying which is right just personal preference. I will say that I haven’t seen any Thank circles outside of the Gamma forums but that was a testing ground so it was to be expected. It might be nice to have an official guideline on the feature eventually.
> There is no benefit to getting thanks that I am aware of so I am not sure it matters one way or the other. I think the feature is nice, I guess. I have tried to to be helpful, if I was able to be, before its implementation and have continued in the same vein after it was introduced. So I imagine it hasn’t changed how other people interact on the forum either. I do try to treat it as a “Thank” instead of a “Like” button but there isn’t any rule saying which is right just personal preference. I will say that I haven’t seen any Thank circles outside of the Gamma forums but that was a testing ground so it was to be expected. It might be nice to have an official guideline on the feature eventually.
I’m merely trying to think what potential the system has, possibly getting other people to think in the process too. I am not saying rules should be used to specify what people can and what they can’t thank. I’m just thinking the possibilities of this kind of system out loud. For example, in your case it seems to have worked especially well.
I still have nothing against people using it how they want. In the end, it’s their choice. That incident I told about just got me to thinking the feature and it’s possibilities more deeply.
The forum guidelines could definitely have a section that tells what kind of posts you should thank. It shouldn’t have any kind of rules enforced, that would be just silly. The section should just to show how it is intended to be used. Users would still be deciding what kind of posts they see thank worthy.
> > There is no benefit to getting thanks that I am aware of so I am not sure it matters one way or the other. I think the feature is nice, I guess. I have tried to to be helpful, if I was able to be, before its implementation and have continued in the same vein after it was introduced. So I imagine it hasn’t changed how other people interact on the forum either. I do try to treat it as a “Thank” instead of a “Like” button but there isn’t any rule saying which is right just personal preference. I will say that I haven’t seen any Thank circles outside of the Gamma forums but that was a testing ground so it was to be expected. It might be nice to have an official guideline on the feature eventually.
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> I’m merely trying to think what potential the system has, possibly getting other people to think in the process too. I am not saying rules should be used to specify what people can and what they can’t thank. I’m just thinking the possibilities of this kind of system out loud. For example, in your case it seems to have worked especially well.
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> I still have nothing against people using it how they want. In the end, it’s their choice. That incident I told about just got me to thinking the feature and it’s possibilities more deeply.
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> The forum guidelines could definitely have a section that tells what kind of posts you should thank. It shouldn’t have any kind of rules enforced, that would be just silly. The section should just to show how it is intended to be used. Users would still be deciding what kind of posts they see thank worthy.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply it needed a rule. I was just saying that as you have said it might be nice “to show how it is intended to be used.” I hope we get a “Waypoint Forums 101” section at one point. A lot of things are still not settled so it is understandable why we don’t have one now.
Yeah I stopped paying attention to it. It’s just like the Thumbs Up/Down option on most websites. Some people look at it as an actual basis for recognition whereas if they don’t get their thanks or someone disagrees with it, it becomes an issue.
It is literally more or less just a way of saying “Cool Story Bro” in a surprising semi-serious notation.
I just don’t see it as anything as an “update” to further enhance the site. It’s obviously been abused more than enough. If I offer something helpful and don’t get the “thanks” for it, my sun will rise tomorrow, the air will still be breathable and life will certainly move forward.
I say do away with it. You’ll see how ridiculous it is when people start saying “What happened to my imaginary ‘props’?!?!”
> Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply it needed a rule. I was just saying that as you have said it might be nice “to show how it is intended to be used.” I hope we get a “Waypoint Forums 101” section at one point. A lot of things are still not settled so it is understandable why we don’t have one now.
No, you didn’t imply that it would need a rule, I just wanted to point out that I wasn’t thinking about something as radical as controlling what people can thank and what they can’t.
But I’d be very happy to see this “Waypoint Forums 101”. I believe the thank feature has already been utilized pretty well, but as I have said many times, thanks could potentially be a feature for members to see who they could possibly direct their questions to.
Of course CLs are obvious, but these forums definitely have people who aren’t CLs, but have extensive knowledge on many subjects and are just helpful overall.
> I posted in the Gamma forums that “Thank” is not the right word.
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> You don’t thank someone for a rebuttal against your argument. The word thank only seems to be for topic creators, and not your normal forum life.
ehh i don’t know, i think it kind of is. think about it - if i “thank” a post it’s like me saying “thank you for saying this” to the poster. i know a lot of suggestions were kicked around in the Gammas but none of them really seemed to fit the bill.